Marion won’t be world’s fastest Silver Star

Marion Jones is 34 years old. She hasn’t played basketball since college. And even when she did play, she was considered a raw talent.

It’s a stretch to think she can find a place in the WNBA.

So why has she been working out with a Silver Stars trainer?

Because she lives in Austin, close to the Silver Stars staff. And because, while the WNBA would be a longshot, there could be basketball opportunities in Europe.

The Silver Stars will track what she does, as they do all prospects. But they haven’t targeted her, and they don’t have any plans to sign her.

Jones is worth some publicity, but the Silver Stars don’t view her as a gate attraction.

Still, more power to her in this attempt. She was released from a Texas federal prison a little more than a year ago after completing most of her six-month sentence for lying about doping and her role in a check-fraud scam. She deserves a second chance.

“It’s important for people to know that it’s possible to make a mistake in your life,” she said recently. “But it’s what you do after the mistake that people are going to remember you by. Are you going to make whatever negatives that happened in your life a positive? Are you going to disappear? That has certainly never been in my horizon. How can I use my experience, my story, to help people and in the process hop on this journey of trying to make a team?”

The Silver Stars agree and are willing to help.

Her former partner, fellow sprinter Tim Montgomery, recently gave a reason to question her sincerity. In a federal prison in Alabama, Montgomery told a London newspaper that Jones could make herself cry for the cameras.